Worcester industrialist's life celebrated

Sunday

Nov 18, 2012 at 8:15 PMNov 18, 2012 at 8:22 PM

His wit was legendarily dry, as were his martinis. Paul S. Morgan was a proud “Rockefeller Republican,” as the late industrialist's son, Philip R. Morgan, noted at a packed bash held in his father's honor this afternoon at the Higgins Armory Museum. Some 400 well-wishers thronged to the party that Mr. Morgan wanted instead of a funeral, at the museum he loved.

By Shaun Sutner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

His wit was legendarily dry, as were his martinis.

Paul S. Morgan was a proud “Rockefeller Republican,” as the late industrialist's son, Philip R. Morgan, noted at a packed bash held in his father's honor this afternoon at the Higgins Armory Museum. Some 400 well-wishers thronged to the party that Mr. Morgan wanted instead of a funeral, at the museum he loved.

The elder Morgan, who died Sept. 23 at the age of 88, guided the Morgan Construction Co. during its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s before the family-owned steel company was acquired by the European conglomerate, Siemens AG.

But Mr. Morgan was known as much for his passion for civic life, politics, culture and travel as he was for his executive prowess, sharp opinions and emphatic decision-making style.

A few years ago, during his retirement in Duxbury, on Boston's South Shore, Mr. Morgan, a museum connoisseur, decided he wanted to take a close look at the Ringling Brothers Museum in Sarasota, Fla.

So he called an old friend with whom he and his wife used to socialize, Ann Beringer Hollins, formerly of Worcester, a longtime guide at the famed circus museum.

As usual, he dispensed with the preliminaries.

“Ann, Paul Morgan here. I'm coming down and I want a private tour,” Ms. Hollins, at today's party, recalled him saying. “I had been a docent a pretty long time, but I was kind of intimidated. He was tough. We were all sort of afraid of him. He was a character and a half.”

James C. Donnelly Jr., a Worcester lawyer and president of the Higgins museum, related a similar story about the compelling way Mr. Morgan recruited him to the Higgins board in 1987.

“Donnelly, it's Morgan,” Mr. Morgan said when the younger man picked up the phone. “I want you to be a trustee of the Higgins Armory Museum.”

“I didn't have a choice,” Mr. Donnelly remembered. “He was the kind of guy who called you before you got around to reaching him.”

A bus from Plymouth had transported a merry crew of top-hatted members of the historic South Shore town's Old Colony Club, of which Mr. Morgan was a member until his death, serving as a super-efficient bursar in recent years. The social club, as the famous late Harvard University theologian Peter Gomes — who was a member — used to say, is for men “who like to do nothing, and do it well.”

The Old Colony guys circulated on the Higgins gallery floor, dispensing anecdotes about Mr. Morgan.

Brian Alosi of Plymouth told how Mr. Morgan in his later years had embarked on a difficult project, to transfer the Forefathers Monument from its hill overlooking Plymouth to a spot closer to Plymouth Rock. Among the impediments: The massive monument is about 80 feet tall and would cost about $1 million to move.

“Paul was the real optimist,” Mr. Alosi said of the former Worcester city councilor. “I'm confident he would have gotten it done. He just ran out of time.”

As would be expected for a warm farewell to a fun-loving but respected businessman, the party was low on speeches and teary eulogies.

Mr. Morgan's son, Philip, delivered a brief remembrance of his father's zest for international business deals, the irony of his being a non-engineer in charge of an engineering firm, and his political persona as a fiscally conservative but socially liberal Republican, “a nearly vanished breed,” as the younger Morgan put it.

“He was no-nonsense,” the son said, raising his glass to the crowd. “A toast to the ever-flourishing Paul Morgan.”